Of Fires and Flares
by Pikacraft
Summary: After the turn to good of Team Plasma, the Shadow Triad has been given an important mission. To find and protect a Pokemon hybrid! But when the person you're protecting is a kid with a fire like temperament and a wish not to keep still, it's hard to get the job done. And with Team Flare watching their every move; will Cilan, Chili and Cress have what it takes?
1. The Hybrid, The Triad and me!

**Pikacraft: Hey guys and welcome to my new story!**

**Chili: YAY! I GET A ROLE.**

**Everyone: ¬.¬()**

**Cress: Are we good guys?**

**Pikacraft: DUH!**

**Cilan: My brothers, sometimes I can't stand them.**

**Pikacraft: Don't worry Cilan, I have Zekrom to keep them in check. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Three men were standing atop the tallest building of Striaton City. Their faces were covered by masks. They were wearing completely black, ninja-like clothing. Their white hair was hitting their face in the windy breeze.

"Why do we have to do it?!" The one with red eyes. The blue eyed man sighed.

"Ghetsis ordered us to!" He growled. "We are of service to him!" The final member of the three looked over the city. His green eyes surveyed the scene.

"Where do we start? Ghetsis ordered us to find and protect a pokémon human hybrid, who is somewhere here in Unova, from _those_ guys." He said with a moan. The members of the Shadow Triad looked at each other. Since Team Plasma had started working to help both people and pokémon after the horrendous results from their liberation plot two years ago. Ghetsis had learned the error of his ways and N was still king of Team Plasma. Missions where still around and the Triad took what they could, when they could.

"Whatever they are planning to do with the hybrid _can't_ be good." The blue one added. "If it has powers greater than a pokémon, we are all doomed."

"Only if the mission is a failure! Plus, _we_ never fail!" The red one almost shouted.

"Let's go back. We can plan tomorrow." The final member said with next to no emotion. Suddenly, the three teleported. Vanishing from sight in the blackness of Striaton at night.

(d=^.^=b)

"CHILI! YOU CAN NOT HAVE DOUGHNUTS FOR BREAKFAST!" Cilan was abruptly awoken by the screams of his older brother, Cress, at his younger brother, Chili. Cilan yawned and stretched. It was another normal day in the Striaton Gym, that's for sure. Pansage jumped up, onto Cilan's bed and playfully shoved his trainer. Cilan groaned as he got out of bed, pulled his clothes on and walked downstairs to see Cress and Chili fighting over the doughnut box. He turned to face Pansage and the two sighed. Cress was supposedly the oldest but you wouldn't know it.

"That's my brothers." Cilan muttered under his breath. He snatched the box from his brothers and put it back in the cupboard. "Guys, we are going to be bombarded by Gym challengers and for that we don't want either of you on a sugar rush for it!" He shouted. The other two hung their heads in shame.

"Sorry Cilan." They echoed in unison. Cress' Panpour nudged Chili's Pansear and instantly got a bowl of pokémon food. Pansage sweat dropped. His brothers were always betting about arguments in the Gym and Panpour always betted that Cilan would finish the arguments. Panpour was always right. Loud groans were heard from the Gym, both pokémon and human.

(d^.ob)

Running. That's all he seemed to do nowdays. Every minute of every hour. Every hour of every day. Arceus, they didn't quit did they? He turned to look behind him. There was no one there. His limbs became heavy and he sank to the floor.

"At least I can take a rest." He gasped, getting oxygen into his lungs every time he did. He remembered that his partner pokémon was probably in the next city, waiting for him. He got up and walked through the rest of the forest, liking the fact he wasn't running. The fact that he could enjoy the scenery for once. He walked slowly with a smile on his face. Nothing so far could ruin this, that was until.

"There he is! Get him!" He quickly turned his head and began running again. Stupid idiots, he could lose them easily. For a young male, he had incredible agility. He jumped into the air and landed on a tree branch. Quietly he looked below as two Team Flare grunts ran into sight.

"We've lost him!" The male grunt exclaimed. The female grunt rolled her eyes.

"Well duh, he couldn't have gotten far. Let's go!"

"Roger!" The male nodded and the two ran off. He sighed. That was a close one. He jumped down and slowly ran off through the trees. He wasn't taking any chances on begin caught this time. Suddenly something wrapped itself around his ankle causing him to trip. He saw a pokémon with vines coming out of its back, one of them was already holding his foot.

"You wanna play, huh? Play with this!" His right hand glowed red and he aimed it in the pokémon's direction. Within seconds, flames shot from his hand and hit the pokémon who, howling in pain, realised his foot. He got up and continued running. The effects of constantly running were taking a toll on him. He was out of breath. His whole body ached, screaming out in pain. He heard a noise, not that of a pokémon, but continued on anyway. His partner was waiting for him. No matter what happened, he would get to that Pokémon Center and meet up with his partner. Black spots evaded his vision as felt himself slowing down.

"No… no…" He muttered as he collapsed to the floor.

(d.b)

Cilan groaned as he and Pansage had to go into the forest for the umpteenth time this week after Chili ate all the berries. Sometimes, his younger brother could be really selfish. Yeah, he was sixteen. That classified him as an adult! Cress was eighteen but acted younger than Chili. Cilan couldn't believe he was the middle child. He acted like the oldest. Stopping arguments, taking control… and much, much more. Cilan did like the alone time with Pansage, though. He knew that it was hard to spend quality time with is first pokémon because of everything. Being a Gym Leader; a waiter, a member of Team Plasma. Another sigh escaped Cilan's mouth. When his brothers where doing missions or anything for Team Plasma, they could get along fine but at home… it was a completely different story. Maybe the new mission was getting to them. Finding one person out of millions would be very difficult. Near on impossible, in fact. But Ghetsis and N had put their belief in the trio so they had to do their best. Cilan noticed something that caught his eye. Something or someone was lying on the ground, a few meters away from him. Cilan called Pansage over and they ran towards the figure.

"Please be okay." Cilan whispered under his breath. When he was standing over the figure, did he then realise something was defiantly wrong.

Lying on the ground was a boy, a boy with messy, spikey, raven hair with red and brown streaks here and there. Poking out of the hair was a pair of ears; the fur was the same colour as his hair. Part of his arms was a reddish brown; the end of the random colouring was halfway between the hand and the elbow. A tail was poking out and it was and orange colour. The boy was wearing dark grey baggy jeans, a blue and white; short sleeved, zipped hoodie and a pair of red and black high tops. Cilan gasped. This person, whoever they were, seemed to have the features of a Vulpix; A fire type pokémon from the Kanto region. He touched the boy's arm only to pull back in pain. The boy's skin felt hot, burning hot to touch. Cilan realised something. This kid could be the person Ghetsis was talking about. He had pokémon features. Well, it's not every day you see someone with ears and a tail walking around, especially not a kid. Cilan knelt down with Pansage standing next to him. He heard a small, pained groan come from the kid's mouth. Cilan just didn't know what to do. He couldn't carry the boy to the Gym because he'd burn himself. But he couldn't just leave the kid here. Cilan felt for some reason that water would only make this thing worse. He went to hold the kid's arm again to find it was cold, the kid was turning cold. Although this was dangerous for the kid, Cilan found it easier to put the boy on his back.

"Pansage! Run ahead and tell the others we're coming!" He instructed. Pansage nodded and ran off. Cilan started running too. Who knows what would happen, if he didn't get this kid help on time. Whatever the kid was, or who he was at that point was irrelevant. Cilan only cared about saving that kid's life.

* * *

**Pikacraft: ANNNNND That's the first chapter done!**

**Cilan: You have three stories going on at the same time!**

**Pikacraft: Yeah, I know but there is such a demand for me to finish Nightmare so I'll try to focus on that.**

**Cress: And do other chapters when free or suited?**

**Pikacraft: Yes. My life doesn't revolve around this site, I have a half term of school left to finish before I can do this a lot.**

**Chili: Umm... Why do you have school?**

**Pikacraft: IT'S LAW! ****Anyway, hope you enjoyed and see you next time!**


	2. From Flares to Ash!

**Pikacraft: I AM OVER MY WRITERS BLOCK FOR THIS STORY! YAY!**

**Cilan: Thank god. Chili has been complaining for ages that he wants his main role job back.**

**Pikacraft: Chili does not have to write this story, does he?**

**Cress: No.**

**Pikacraft: Speaking of the devil, where is he?**

**Cress: Taking a sauna.**

**Pikacraft: 0.0... Oh-kay. Well, let's get this show on the road. I have added some of my own comments which are in brackets with the letters A.N. at the front. That means Author's Note.**

* * *

Cilan ran as fast as he could. With the added weight of the boy; he couldn't go very far, very fast. The sight of Striaton City appeared through the forest's trees. 'Not much longer… just hang on!' Cilan thought to not only himself but the boy although he knew the kid couldn't read his thoughts. He suddenly felt a short burst of heat on his back. Cilan quickly shock it off as the Striaton Gym appeared in sight. 'Chili, please be there.'

( )

Pansage held open the doors of the gym for his trainer, who ran in towards the back of the gym. Cilan burst into the trio's living quarters. Chili and Cress were nowhere in sight. He lay the boy down on the sofa before searching for his brothers. Cilan finally found a note on the kitchen table.

* * *

Dear Cilan,

A pokémon has become very agitated at the Pokémon Center and Nurse Joy asked for us to help her. We will only be out for around ten minutes so see you later.

Your Brothers,

Chili and Cress.

* * *

Cilan groaned. The only time he needed his brothers and they were off helping Nurse Joy with her job. He put his hand on the boy's forehead. Too cold. Pansage stumbled in with a thick, fleecy blanket. Cilan smiled at his partner, the blanket might bring up the boy's temperature. He took the blanket out of Pansage's hands and placed it over the boy. As soon as Cilan did that; a small smiled etched its way on the kid's face and he snuggled into the blanket. Cilan breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly the door burst open and two charred people stood in the doorway, one of them holding a yellow mouse pokémon with rubber gloves.

"What happened?" Cilan asked.

"This happened!" Chili cried angrily pointing at the pokémon, who growled at the fire type trainer. "This pokémon was causing a ruckus in the Pokémon Center searching for its trainer! Thank Arceus pokémon from Unova aren't like this one!"

"I don't know what it is, no one did." Cress added. The pokémon began to look around the room with angry eyes until it began looking at the boy on the sofa. It began to struggle against Cress' grip.

"See?! Like hell fire on a pogo stick!" Chili groaned. The pokémon bit Cress' finger making the water trainer drop it. It then ran over to the boy and began shaking him.

"Pika pi! Pika pika? Pika pi?!" It cried. Cilan ran over and picked the pokémon up.

"Don't do that! The boy's sick, if you wake him up it'll only get worse!" the pokémon growled loudly before sending a high voltage shock at the grass type trainer. Pain coursed through Cilan's body and he let go of the yellow mouse.

"CILAN!" Both brothers shouted, rushing over to help Cilan. The pokémon jumped back on top of the boy. The kid groaned and slowly began opening his eyes. Cilan noticed that his eyes was the same browny colour of his markings.

"Pikachu?" The boy muttered. The pokémon, called Pikachu, began crying of happiness and glomped the boy.

"Pika pi! Pikachu pi pika chu pika Pikachu!" The boy slowly sat up and rubbed his pokémon's head.

"I'm just glad you're alright." The boy replied. He then looked up and noticed the triplets. His eyes grew as round as dinner plates, he also seemed to be scared of the brothers. He quickly tried to use the blanket as a cover.

"We've already seen it. You're a pokémon hybrid, aren't you?" Cilan asked. The boy nodded.

"I never used to be though…" He nearly whispered. The triplets sat down on chairs they had placed in front of the sofa.

"Might you mind if we ask about what happened to you? If you don't want to speak about it…" Cress began to speak but was only interrupted by the boy.

"It's okay. You helped me and Pikachu… I think... that I can... trust you." He said with a tiny smile.

"So, what happened?" Chili questioned.

"Team Rocket. After the Sinnoh League, I was abducted by Team Rocket's top agents and woke up two weeks later like this."

"Team Rocket. Weren't they defeated two years ago? They had planned to use a ultimate weapon against the world but when the weapon escaped, their plans failed and the organisation fell. Is that who you mean?" Cress asked. The boy nodded again.

"Yeah, I was ten at the time."

"Did you find out what the ultimate weapon was?"

"Yes… me."

(d0.0b)

The room was silent for what seemed like forever as the triplets registered the fact that a so called weapon was sitting in front of them; in the form of a twelve year old boy.

"No way…" Cilan whispered. The boy watched at the expressions of the triplets turned sour.

"Hey, it's over now! Team Rocket are dead!" He gave a smile.

"But Team Flare aren't. They want to re-use Team Rocket's plan. You're in danger!" Chili near on shouted. Pikachu growled angrily, its cheeks sparking with electricity.

"I know…" The boy faced Cilan. "You found me out cold, right?" Cilan nodded. "I passed out because of exhaustion. I've been running constantly for the past week. Running from Team Flare."

"I see. I guess you asked Pikachu to meet you at the Striaton City Pokémon Center and when you didn't show up, Pikachu got extremely worried and agitated. That's why Nurse Joy couldn't control it. Pikachu only responds to you right?" Cress theorised.

"After the incident. Yeah, Pikachu has a hatred for any human apart from me." The boy answered. Pikachu hugged into the boy once more.

"I know today has been tough on you so why don't we leave you to get some sleep?" Cilan asked. The boy nodded. The triplets went to leave the room when the boy spoke up again.

"Ash." The triplets looked confused at him.

"Huh?"

"That's my name. I'm Ash!"

"Oh! Well I'm Cilan and these are my brothers, Chili and Cress. Sleep well."

(d^.^b)

The Shadow Triad bowed when Ghetsis and N appeared on the screen.

"Lord N. Ghetsis, sir." They spoke at the same time.

"_Any news?"_

"Yes. We've found the Hybrid." Fire spoke first. The three Shadow Triads had codenames of course, just in case. Fire used fire types, Forest used grass types and Foam used water types. (A.N. Of course you know who these three are so I need no explanation of who's who.) The two leaders of Team Plasma gasped.

"_You have?!"_ Ghetsis asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Forest found him in the woods nearby. Team Flare are already chasing him." Foam replied. N growled.

"_How could people be so selfish?! The hybrid is also a human as well! They have feelings!"_

"He has feelings. It turns out the hybrid is a twelve year old boy who was experimented on back when he was ten." The two leaders gasped. They were appalled at what they had been told. They were disgusted, horrified, fuming.

"What's *yawn* going on in here?" Everyone turned to see that Ash was standing in the doorway. He looked between the three Triads. "Cilan, Chili, Cress… what are you doing wearing those get ups? Do you like wearing leotards or something?" N burst out laughing with Ghetsis stifling a giggle. The Triads went bright red under their mouth masks.

"NO! THIS IS LYCRA! IT IS A MATERIAL! AND PLUS WE ARE NOT WEARING GET UPS, THIS IS OUR UNIFORM!" Fire shouted angrily. Ash just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right…" He muttered with a smirk on his face. Fire went to lung at the boy but stopped when Ash's hand turned red and a flame burned brightly on his hand. "I wouldn't do that if I was you." Fire nodded and hid behind Foam, who sighed. Forest stepped forward.

"Lord N, Ghetsis. This is Ash, the hybrid. Ash, these two are our bosses. N and Ghetsis." He introduced.

"_Hello there."_ Ghetsis smiled. N waved.

"_Nice to meet you."_ He grinned.

"Hi…" Ash mumbled. The Triad realised that, because of his ordeal, Ash still didn't completely trust other people yet apart from them. Ghetsis cleared his throat.

"_You three know the mission from here on in. I'm counting on you."_

"Yes Sir!" The Triad bowed. The communication ended as N and Ghetsis vanished from the screen. The Triad turned to face Ash.

"So what are you doing up?" Foam asked.

"I can't sleep."

"So you'd thought that you'd interrupt our meeting?!" Fire scowled.

"No. I was searching for the kitchen. I was hungry." Ash shrugged his shoulders in his reply. Forest giggled slightly. Ash was like Chili a lot, but the kid acted more maturely then the older teen.

"Oh, right. The kitchen is on the second right. We're going to bed. See you tomorrow." Fire grinned as the Triad walked off.

(d-.-b)

Ash just stood still for a moment before walking off back into the living room. He didn't feel hungry anymore (A.N. Shock horror!). He sat down on the makeshift sofa bed and watched his faithful partner sleep peacefully. He looked out of the window and noticed a speck of light fly across the sky.

"A shooting star!" Ash whispered in awe. He put his hands together and closed his eyes. "Arceus. Please look over my friends and family. I hope they're okay after all this time. Brock; Misty, Gary, May, Max, Dawn, Professor Oak… Mum… please be okay." He looked out of the window and smiled before he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

**Pikacraft: So we find out that I like the Unova anime SO much that I always use the characters from it. Also that it has been two years since Ash has seen anyone that he properly trusts. By the way, he hasn't told the Striaton Trio the full story of what happened. That will be for a later date!**

**Chili: Seriously?!**

**Pikacraft: Two words. A Sauna?**

**Chili: I'll shut up know.**

**Pikacraft: Hope to see you next time!**


	3. Don't Play with Fire!

**Pikacraft: Okay. HOW MANY WRITER'S BLOCKS CAN I HAVE OVER THIS THING?!**

**Deupia: _Woah, Pika. Calm down!_**

**Ryan: _And I'm usually the angry one._**

**Pikacraft: Your right, Ryan. And that's how it's gonna stay! I forgot to add the ages of the character to ALL of my fanfics! I'm so sorry. When I update the next chapter for each then I'll add ages. Currently working on the next chapter of Black and White: Best Wishes, Unova! Sorry Aura of Life fans but the first five chapters went out so quickly because I had a good Idea on what to write! So I'm working on my other stories plus my newest one as well. Also, for each chapter... It is a custom to write a few lines from the next chapter for my readers! And answer reviews so here they are!**

**Reviews:**

**starlight luna: **Pikachu trusts people that he knows and that his trainer trusts only. So Ash's old friends and family are trusted by Pikachu. Team Plasma won't let Ash into the Unova league to keep him safe so sorry about that but the group of five will travel. Yes I said five. You'll find out the fifth member this chapter. He will find out that his friends and family are alright. Don't worry about that! Enjoy this chapter!

**BannanGodis:** I'm glad it means a lot to you. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

**KHLegacy: **Yeah, poor Ash. But hey! He has some new friends to help him. Enjoy!

**Thanks to everyone who has read this story so far!**

* * *

Cilan yawned loudly as he awoke. Yesterday seemed to be a dream for him. He got up and walked out of his room. Seconds later, he was at the bottom of the stairs on his back. He opened his eyes to see an upside down hybrid and Pikachu giggling at him.

"Looks like someone's got up on the wrong side of the bed."

"Good morning to you too Ash." Cilan grumbled as he stood up. The boy grinned at him before walking off into the Kitchen. Cilan rolled his eyes and followed Ash to see Cress and Chili, civilly, eating their breakfast.

"Morning you two." The said at the same time. Cilan raised an eyebrow at their actions. By now, Cress and Chili were fighting over something. He crossed his arms.

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"NOTHING!" Cress and Chili shouted nervously. Cilan noticed Ash was looking at them with a questionable look. Cilan just smiled a bit before turning to his brothers.

"Let me guess, you set something on fire?" Chili shook his head.

"Ask him that." He said whilst pointing to Ash.

"HEY!" Ash shouted angrily. Pikachu growled from his shoulder. Chili's face went pale and he stopped talking.

"It's just that Lord N is coming here today for a visit." Cress sighed. Cilan breathed a sigh of relief. At least the two hadn't destroyed anything.

"Is that all? I guess you two are behaving properly so neither me or Ash says anything bad about you two on front of him."

"ARE NOT!" The other two both shouted. Suddenly Chili and Cress got into an argument over who was the worst behaved. Cilan grinned whilst Ash sweat dropped.

"Are they always like this?" He asked Cilan.

"Yes, yes they are."

***OFAF***

"HE GOT AWAY?!" Xerosic shouted at the two grunts who were standing in front of him. The grunts were cowering in fear of the scientist. They had broken the number one rule of all grunts working in Team Flare,** never** anger Xerosic. Xerosic sighed. Never use grunts to do a job as important as this. "You two may go. I will inform Lysandre about this." The grunts ran as fast as they could out of the lab. Xerosic picked up his communicator. "Hello, is Damien there?"

"This is Admin Damien reporting for duty, Sir!"

"Ah! Damien, thank you for picking up. I want you and four more of our best admins to go to Striaton City and catch our weapon for us. Can you do that?"

"Of course! What harm can a little boy do?"

"A lot by Team Rocket's standards. Good luck."

"Yes, Sir!" Xerosic smiled evilly when the conversation had finished. Team Flare would rule the world and they didn't need a legendary pokémon to do it either.

***OFAF***

Ash had offered to go with Cilan to the market. He didn't want to have to be with the other brothers when they had a temper tantrum. Ash kind of liked Cilan as a friend. The guy was kind and caring. Plus he wasn't like his two brothers. Also, Cilan reminded Ash of Brock. A friend of his that travelled with him everywhere before the experiments began. The memory of his friends made Ash feel a bit down. It had been two years, they would recognise him any more. But to go into the market, Ash had to wear a hat to cover his ears and wrap his tail around his waist to make it into a belt.

"I feel so weird. My ears are itchy and my tail hurts." He muttered as the two walked into town. Pikachu nuzzled into his trainer to make him feel better and Cilan just smiled.

"It won't be for long. We only need to get a few things." Ash sighed but nodded. He wanted to go out and do this anyway. Cilan looked at his list and then gave it to Ash to look at. "I'll got get the meats and stuff like that. Do you wanna go and get the vegetables?" Ash nodded.

"Sure. Plus Pikachu might want an apple or two." The two got to the market and spilt up. Ash instantly regretted that, he felt so nervous with all the people around him.

"Pika pi, pika pika pikachu." Pikachu squeaked in a calming voice. Ash smiled at his partner.

"Yeah, your right. Let's quickly get everything, meet up with Cilan and then we can go. It only took the two ten minutes to get everything they needed. They then decided to look around the market. Pikachu was munching happily on an apple. A sudden scream from deeper inside the market made the two turn around.

"That sounded like…" Ash mumbled with a pale face. He looked at Pikachu who nodded at him. Ash ran towards the direction of the noise hoping that nothing bad had happened.

***OFAF***

"Let go of my bag!" A woman cried out. Three robbers had attacked her and her male friend whilst they were shopping. She was currently playing tug of war with one of the three whilst her friend was pinned against one of the robber's chests. A small crowd had gathered around the spectacle, someone should have called the police by now but nope. All the crowd wanted to see was someone come out of nowhere and kick the robber's butts. But nobody would. Cilan stepped forward from the crowd with Pansage by his side. He wasn't going to stand and watch this evil crime happen.

"Let go of that bag now!" He commanded. The leader of the three stepped forward and smirked.

"An' what are yeh gonna do? Use yer monkey to throw Banana peels at us?" The other robbers laughed. The one fighting with the woman had managed to get the bag and pushed the woman to the floor.

"No but I will do this. Pansage, use Bite!" The leader threw a poke ball himself.

"Go Beartic, use Ice Beam!" The Ice Beam hit Pansage, knocking him out instantly. The robbers laughed again. "Too easy. Who's next?"

"ME!" A shout came from nowhere and suddenly two Shadow balls hit the other robbers, making them fall to the floor. Cilan turned around to see Ash standing to the side of the scene with a Shadow Ball in his hand. Pikachu standing next to his trainer with his cheeks crackling with electricity.

"What der? Beartic, use Ice Beam again." The leader called. Beartic aimed the beam at the boy, the crowd gasped. Ash's hand suddenly glowed red and he released a Flamethrower. The gasps of terror turned into gasps of shock. The two moves connected with a blast sending a wave of air out. The Flamethrower then overpowered the Ice Beam and knocked out Beartic. The leader growled as he returned Beartic and ran at Ash with his fist clenched. Pikachu jumped forward and used Thunderbolt on the man, causing him to fall over. The crowd just stood there in awe. Cilan walked over to the hybrid after noticing he was standing incredibly still. He noticed that Ash was staring at the two people who were almost robbed. Ash just stood there for a bit before running off towards the exit.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried, following his trainer. Cilan ran after the two. The woman watched the three disappear out of the market and sighed. The boy that saved her, looked familiar.

***OFAF***

Ash and Cilan burst through the doors of the Striaton Gym. Both panting from running so fast. Chili, Cress and a teenager with light green hair walked towards them. Ash quickly pulled off the hat and unwrapped his tail from his waist. He moved it around a bit to check it still worked.

"What's up with you two?" Cress asked.

"Two… words…, Robbery… crime." Cilan panted. The other teen giggled.

"Of course you had to save the day Cilan." Cilan shook his head.

"I tried but it was Ash who managed to beat them." The others turned pale.

"Did… he…?"

"Use his powers. Yes." Chili moaned.

"Now they know that he's in Striaton City." Ash sighed.

"They know I'm here in the first place! They were chasing me through the nearby forest! It wouldn't take a genius to know that I'm in Striaton City if I was seen in the forest nearby now would it?!" He shouted at Chili. Chili just nodded in fear.

"Anyway, is there anything else you want Lord N?" Cress asked their guest.

"I would like to talk to Ash, if that's okay." N smiled at the boy who nodded.

"Sure… I… I don't… mind." N placed a hand on Ash's free shoulder.

"Listen, Ash. I am not going to hurt you. No one here is. I understand that the past two years have been really hard for you but you need to open up to others more. Okay?" N turned to face the brothers. "I'd like to have a private chat, if you don't mind." The Trio nodded and walked off towards the Gym's battlefield to battle challengers.

***OFAF***

"WOAH! You were chosen by the legendary pokémon Zekrom?!" Ash almost shouted in excitement. He had been opening up to N slowly after they had started their talk. N had told Ash all about his journey and about being chosen by the Dragon of Ideals.

"Yes, Zekrom is still my friend but I let Zekrom go and protect the region." N smiled.

"I understand. The legendries control different parts of the world and look over their respective regions. Arceus told me that once." N looked at the boy with a shocked expression.

"Arceus?!"

"Yeah. Long story, it happened before…" Ash suddenly went quiet, Pikachu looked down at the ground. N realised the two didn't like talking about the events that led up to where they were now.

"Ash, you don't need to worry about it. Team Plasma is working to destroy Team Flare and once we do, you can live a normal life again."

"How normal can someone be if they have ears on top of their head, a tail and can use pokémon moves?" Ash asked sadly.

"If you forgot about those things then you still be your normal self. You could see your friends and family again. I'm presuming you have friends and family… right?"

"Yeah, but I haven't seen them in two years. They wouldn't recognise me now."

"I bet they would. You have friends here who will stop at nothing to keep you safe, both human and pokémon. Who's to say that your other friends wouldn't either?" A small smile crept across the younger boy's face.

"Thanks N."

"No problem. Now, why don't we go and raid the kitchen for sweets and Ketchup for Pikachu?" N suggested. Ash and Pikachu's eyes sparkled and they nodded eagerly in agreement. The three ran off towards the kitchen with grins on their faces and Chili would get all the blame for their fun.

***OFAF***

The woman and man from before were walking towards their suite in the nearby hotel. The woman got out her key card and swiped them both in.

"We're back!" The man called out.

"How did it go Gramps?" A teen asked with two others standing behind him.

"Nowhere, Gary. The police had nothing and Delia almost lost her purse in the market." The man replied angrily. The others except Delia gasped.

"Are you okay, Mrs. Ketchum?" the male teen asked.

"I'm fine, Brock. Some boy saved us." Delia dropped onto the bed. She sighed sadly. "It's been two years. Where could he be?" Tears ran down her cheeks. The others knew who she was talking about.

"It'll be okay, Mrs. Ketchum! We'll do whatever we can. He could only be here in Unova, it's the only region left. He has to be here!" The girl smiled.

"Or some super-secret laboratory owned by an evil organisation…" Gary was hit on the head by the girl's mallet.

"Can it, Oak."

"Okay Misty! God!" The others turned to see that Gary's Grandfather was deep in thought.

"Professor Oak, what's wrong?" Brock asked.

"That boy… he seemed… familiar."

* * *

Next time on Of Fires and Flares;

"I'd like to join you... if you don't mind."

"Where is this first Jewel of the Elements?"

"We need to hide!"

"GET AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!"

* * *

**Pikacraft: There we go, guys! I'm evil, aren't I? Poor Delia, so close. But if they met up now, then the whole plot of the story would be ruined. The fact that the searching group from Kanto is here will help make sense in a much later chapter. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and See you next time!**


End file.
